Nice and so true about synergy. I’ve heard of people liking the Verite with Asgard 2, which is supposed to be more warm than Asgard 3.
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I’ve had both (as well as Jotunheim, Vali2, Magni2 and Lyr3) and I liked the pure class A sound of the Asgard2 better than the 3. Not that the 3 is a slouch. But the 2 definitely has that traditional Class A sound.
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Awesome, thanks for that additional data point.
Do you plan on trying the Vali 2+?
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I sold the Vali 2 (actually the only Schitt stuff I have left is the bifrost 2). I had bought it for my office, but with Covid just not there enough to justify it sitting there. So I sold it. Will probably try out the Vali 2+ at some point, it’s at a price point that you can make an impulse purchase without feeling guilty.
Right now focusing on something a little more pricy, probably an Elise, pendant or another Ampsandsound product. Trying out an Echo right now just to get a feel for Feliks stuff.
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And by “impulse purchase” I mean 2am on a Saturday after a few fingers of Scotch LOL
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Hey, you have some good options offered already, so I will not repeat the same amps. I own the VO, I have used it on Solid State, Hybrid, and and Tube Amps. Each have a different feel, my preference was a tube amp. Like you I was frustrated at the lack of good options under $1k, I then gave up on that price bracket as I had no desire to change up after 6 months or a year so went to a higher level and called it a day.
However, there is a 6 month wait and wanted a tube amp to hold me over. I found a decent OTL for $350, a Woo Audio WA3 and it is a great value. Now I have spent triple in tube rolling, but that is a different story.
Okay I lied and said I would not repeat other suggestions;
Bottle Head Crack w/SpeedBall
Felix Echo
WA3
I would suggest waiting until you have the VC in hand so you can burn them in and if any of the amps you consider have a decent return policy you could roll the dice with little loss on purchase.
Good Luck
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Nice. The journey/chase. Many options out there. I’m also interested in the amps that you mentioned.
2AM on a Saturday with some liquid flowing – I know the feeling. Ha.
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I just sold my Hagerman Tuba because the new owner made me an offer I couldn’t pass up. I’d strongly recommend it as a great amp for under $1000. The Ei EL84s from Upscale Audio took it from very nice to excellent for another $60.
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For my own education, how would you describe class A sound? I’m a little ignorant about class A vs AB.
The Burson Soloist is class A and (oversimplifying a lot) it sounds like an improved Asgard 3 to me, where it’s taken the richness of the A3’s mids to the next level, so vocals and strings have a tube-like holographic 3D texture to them. Is that what class A sounds like?
I don’t have enough interconnects for all 4 of my amps, so while the Soloist is still in it’s trial period, I’ve been using the interconnects that would normally go to the Pendant, which means I can’t easily A-B them. But when listening to the Soloist, it reminds me of many of the qualities of the Pendant (except speed, where I suspect the Pendant is faster), so I should rearrange the cables again in order to compare those 2 amps.
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Yeah, It does have a similarity to a really nice tube amp. I don’t know the engineering behind it, put they’re often referred to as true or pure analog. They faithfully reproduce what signal they are given perfectly.
Tend to be slightly warm, low mid/high bass bump. Super clean sounding. Effortless is how I would describe it.
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Something I regularly tell myself about this hobby is that one of the delights is the gradual upgrading experience, especially when you move up to higher-quality headphones and then incrementally improve your chain. I say this as someone with high-performance but affordable gear paired with fancier headphones, e.g. the Drop MCTH for my Clear, the ZDT Jr. for my HD 800 SDR. I know I’m not getting the most out of these headphones. But that still means that I’m looking forward, at some point in the future, to boosting the chains and getting more out of them.
Some day I’d like to do the same for a pair of VO. It’s nice to know you can get a Asgard 3 (thanks @PaisleyUnderground!) and have it do justice to your headphones, when on a budget, even as you save up for the Pendant or equivalent amp.
This has been a great thread!
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It would be great to get your impressions of the Echo vs Tuba vs Lyr 3 since those seem to be among the top choices in the less than $700 price range. I’m particularly interested for high impedance dynamic driver headphones.
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I didn’t have anything high impedance when I owned the Lyr3. My main cans at the time were a set of Grado PS500e’s. I did listen to the Hagerman with my Aeolus. Didn’t like them through the high gain output, used the low one. They sounded a bit off to me, one of the reasons (excuses) I’m moving up. Can’t wait to hear the Echo, supposed to be getting it tomorrow.
With the Grados I definitely preferred the Hagerman over the Lyr3. I had a Psvane MKII tube in the Lyr3 which was really nice, but the Hagerman was just superior to my ears. And that was with the stock Mullards.
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Got it, thanks. Sounds like as good a reason (excuse) as any! I hope the Echo works out well for you.
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In general, are OTL tube amps the most sensitive to tube rolling? I would personally prefer an amp that sounds great with stock tubes. I don’t want to get an amp that stretches my budget and then still requires hundreds of dollars of tubes to get to a sound I like.
I think this is the main reason I’ve avoided tube amps for so long. I’m overwhelmed by the number of variables and possibilities. For some, this is the fun part of it. For me it just sounds expensive and endless! Despite this, I know I’m going to cave eventually and get a tube amp. Though I will try to hold off until I’ve spent some quality time with the Verite Closed and my currents amps/dac.
I don’t know if OTL amps are the most sensitive to tube rolling but either way you can’t escape the tube rolling question. Hybrid amps are considered to be the least sensitive, at least in terms of how much “tube sound” the tube will contribute.
Whether an amp sounds great with stock tubes depends on what tubes the amp ships with. Some amps have a reputation for shipping with pretty good tubes so rolling is not needed. For others folks will say that replacing the stock tubes is required for good sound.
There aren’t many absolutes in tube amps it seems. I think I’m going to do some more research and see what other VC owners have tried and liked.
That makes sense, but as you say you may not find a consensus.
If you read enough reviews you will find pretty much every possible verdict, good and bad.
The tricky part is finding a reviewer that seems to have the same preferences as you do. You can then put more weight on their views than others.
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So true. What I’ve found in all my years in audio or basically anything up for purchase, you never know how a product of any kind will work until you try it in your surroundings. I’ve bought components based on friends that have the same musical taste as I do, but upon installation, it just didn’t work out. It might get one started in the right direction , but the ‘ears know’.
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Agreed. You just don’t know until you hear it.
In these covid times it kind of limits you to sources that allow a no-hassle return for refund. Not loads of those, for understandable reasons.